Lawyers e-Journal

Thursday, Sep. 13, 2012

Law Practice Management Tip

Getting started with social media without getting consumed by it

If you haven't started using social media and you are wondering
whether you should be, the simple answer is an unequivocal YES! If
you are not using it at all or only minimally, you're missing
valuable opportunities to stay connected with your network and to
learn more about prospective clients and referral sources. You are
missing opportunities to get introductions to the influencers you
want to meet (i.e. the connections of your connections).

Social media is not a substitute for in-person marketing. It is
not where you should be spending the majority of your marketing
time. But it is an important complement to all the other things you
do to build your reputation and build your relationships.

If you are holding back because you don't know where to start,
here are six steps you can take:

1. Join LinkedIn. While there are many other popular social
networks including Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn is a great place
to start and LinkedIn is the one network where you want to make
sure you are present. The free version is perfectly adequate for
most users.

2. Create a detailed profile which includes a nice photo and all
of your contact information. Once you join, LinkedIn will prompt
you for educational and other biographical information (essentially
helping you create a very detailed resume). Make sure you
create a profile which includes:

A descriptive headline (e.g. rather than "Partner at Smith and
Jones," "Personal Injury Law Attorney, Partner at Smith and
Jones").

A one to two paragraph summary of who you serve, what you do,
what you have done and what differentiates you from other lawyers.
Try to write it in a way that will make you memorable. Focus on no
more than three types of problems you solve. If you try to list the
20 things you actually do, it will be harder for the reader to tell
you apart from other lawyers.

An entry for everywhere you have worked and more importantly,
examples of the types of problems you have solved in each of these
positions (i.e. representative matters which highlight your
accomplishments).

3. Other activities and professional accomplishments,
particularly those that reinforce your competence to handle the
types of legal services you are trying to sell and your experience
in helping the kinds of clients you want to serve.

4. Start sending out invitations to connect once you are
satisfied with your profile and start accepting the invitations to
connect that have been accumulating in your in-box. Try to connect
with at least 50 individuals you know (law school and college
classmates, former co-workers, past and present clients and
referral sources). Review their LinkedIn profiles to get more ideas
about what you might want to include in your own profile. In
addition, take note if you learn something that would be useful to
know about that person (e.g. they like golf, they are interested in
classical music, they attended the same college, they share your
political beliefs, they are active in their church or synagogue,
they started out as a litigator, they had a first career in social
work). For three weeks, make a point of going to your LinkedIn page
daily and skimming through the "updates" that your contacts have
posted. Don't pay too much attention to who they have connected
with (i.e. pay more attention to the substantive updates they have
posted). This means you'll have to skim past a lot of updates. You
will also receive a weekly newsletter (unless you change the
setting) which gives you a summary of all the updates your contacts
have posted since the last newsletter.

5. After three weeks, start posting your own updates once a
week. Try to include links. Possible updates include: linking to an
interesting article; linking to some content you have on your
website or to an article you have published somewhere; mentioning
one of your successes or one of your partner's successes; posing a
question you think your network might be able to answer; flagging a
recent court decision or a new statute and summarizing in a
sentence or two why it might be important; congratulating someone;
letting your network know about an event they may want to
attend.

6. Continue to connect with additional professionals who are
already in your network (and professionals you meet at networking
functions). After two months, identify some companies or
institutions that you would like to represent or some types of
professionals who you think might be good potential referral
sources. Conduct a search in LinkedIn to see if any of your
contacts know someone at that company and might be willing to make
an introduction on your behalf.